Sunday, May 24, 2015

And the winners are.... Red Dot and Readers Cup

With over 5,000 votes cast in total and 10 schools participating, the overall Singapore winners of the 2014-2015 Red Dot Book Award are:

Early Years:

1st place: Going Places

2nd place: Just Imagine

3rd place: A Boy & his Jaguar

Younger Readers:

1st place: Battle Bunny

2nd place: Captain Coconut & the Case of the Missing Bananas

3rd place: A Boy Named Harry

Older Readers:

1st place: The Fourteenth Goldfish

2nd place: El Deafo

3rd place: Rooftoppers

Mature Readers:

1st place: I am Malala

2nd place: We Were Liars

3rd place TIE: The Sky So Heavy -- AND -- A Monster Calls

Note that each school also has its own winners -- and participating schools are given those results to advertise as they will.

The 6th annual Readers Cup competition was held after school Thursday, May 21st, at the Singapore American School (SAS). This year we experimented with allowing up to two teams per school per category -- and consequently had over 40 teams from 12 schools participating. We also added two new ways to win: a Book Cover competition and a Book Trailer competition.

Younger Readers
1st place: United World College - East - Team 1
2nd place: NPS International School - Team 1
3rd place: Canadian International School - Lakeside - Team 2

Book cover: NPS International School
Book trailer: Singapore American School

Older Readers
1st place: Singapore American School - Team 1
2nd place: Canadian International School - Lakeside - Team 1
3rd place: Dulwich International College - Team 2

Book cover: Singapore American School
Book trailer: Singapore American School

Mature Readers
1st place: United World College - Dover - Team 1
2nd place: Singapore American School
3rd place: United World College - East

Book cover: United World College - Dover
Book trailer: United World College - Dover

Our sponsor this year was Closetful of Books and its owner, Denise Tan, had the honor of handing out the trophies to the first-place teams. A $500 donation of books from Closetful of Books & ISLN will be made in the name of each first-place winning team.

The chosen charity is Book Reach, which focuses on school libraries and promoting literacy in Nepal. It was started by Doreen Johnstone, a former Tanglin teacher (and whose husband was a Dover UWC teacher). Doreen wasn't in Singapore at the time of our event, but she will visit each of the winning schools in order to explain her work in Nepal on behalf of children and school libraries.

Many thanks to the SAS teachers/librarians -- Kate Brundage, Rosa Shin-Gay, and Scott Riley -- for everything they did to host the event. (Anyone interested in being the venue next year??) Barb Reid (UWC East) and Meg Johnson (AISS) were the other committee members who deserve special thanks. There is so much work that goes into an event like this. The Readers Cup committee is looking for new members for next year. Contact Barb Reid (bre@uwcsea.edu.sg) if you are interested -- or if you have questions or feedback about this year's event.